'Flipped' Cars: 10 Rebuilt Rides That Turned a Profit

More From The Car Chasers

Restored Cars That Turned a Major Profit

Flipping a car for profit is one part science, one part art form. The science is in identifying one that can be salvaged, and the art is in re-tooling it to look and perform like new. If you can't balance those elements, you won't make much money flipping cars.

Jeff Allen, the star of CNBC's "The Car Chasers," has been striking this balance for years. As the owner of Flat 12 Gallery in Lubbock, Tex., he buys, restores and sells classic cars. He has no guarantee whatsoever that he will find a buyer, or even make back the cost of getting a car to his shop from a faraway city. But he consistently earns top dollar for his flips, so he must be doing something right.

He doesn't do it all on his own. Restoration artist Perry Barndt makes sure each detail is painstakingly restored, and technician Eric Ables has been known to bring even the most hopeless engine back to life. Last but not least, his fiancee of 18 years, Meg Bailey, runs the shop's day-to-day operations, which includes making sure that once a car is restored, it gets sold, no matter how much Allen has fallen in love with it and wants to keep it.

What follows is a list of 10 memorable flips from Flat 12 Gallery's history. All of them were discovered in states of extreme disrepair, restored to perfection and sold for a profit. Allen has provided his recollections of the circumstances that marked each car's transformation from junkyard find to collector's item.